COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 27. THE California Golden Bears opened up what might be a special evening for the team with a pool record in the men's 200 medley relay.

Cal's Guy Barnea (21.30), Damir Dugonjic (23.10), Graeme Moore (20.01) and Joshua Daniels (18.67) won the race in 1:23.08. That swim smashed the time Auburn clocked during prelims of 1:24.60. The win is California's second in the event all time, snapping a three-year streak by Auburn. Cal previously won the event back in 2005 with a 1:25.30 by Milorad Cavic, Henrique Barbosa, Duje Draganja and Rolandas Gimbutis.

"The relay was unbelievable," Daniels said. "Guy started us off. Damir and Graeme had great splits to give us the lead and I finished it off. I couldn't be more proud of my teammates. We are just feeling great and having a blast; having a blast!"

Cal beat Auburn by more than a second with a 1.05-second triumph over Jared White, Adam Klein, Tyler McGill and Gideon Louw, who went 1:24.13 for second. Auburn, however, owns the record for margin of victory with a 1.48-second conquest of Stanford, 1:23.37 to 1:24.85, back in 2007.

Texas' Cole Cragin, Scott Spann, Hill Taylor and Jimmy Feigen placed third in 1:24.63 to complete the top of the podium.

California jumped into the team race lead with 179 points, while Texas stood second with 177 points. Auburn (148.5), Florida (144) and Stanford (136) made up the top five.